From the furry side

Barking
7/4/2009 2:20:11 AM by: Elsi

Sallie wants to write this one, but I'm going to do it anyway.
We had a barkingly exciting day yesterday! It started with Sallie's barking enthusiastically out the window, with that peculiar tone of hysteria that generally means rabbit. There's no way to inhibit this but to go to her, rub her ears, distract her, or drag her away. So, reluctantly, I did this. But when I got to the window, I discovered we had two mule deer in our yard. They were fascinated by Sallie—staring in the window, but quite different from the rabbit's taunting ... more of a "I wonder what's so exciting" air.
I've been trying to teach Sallie to fetch, something we'll need for obedience class Monday. She's gotten the idea, at least, and will retrieve a particular toy and bring it to me, but she doesn't like the activity at all. And she's figured out how to stop it, too. When she gets bored or frustrated, and if barking at me doesn't stop my attempts, she goes and gets the toy, takes it to the loveseat, and drops it over the back!
Sal always barks at the thunder, whether near or far. But yesterday's rain was so phenomenally hard (I kept looking for hail, but it was just water!) that she started barking at the rain itself. I'm sure she takes credit for the storm's ending.